


Return to Us Alive

by undernightlight



Series: Power Rangers: Zed Squad [1]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers S.P.D.
Genre: Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27574319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undernightlight/pseuds/undernightlight
Summary: Bridge is unable to sleep, worried that the cadets - Daniel, Sen and Stone - won't make it back from their first mission with Special Investigations. He had a last ditch idea that hoped, if needed, will save them if they get into a tricky situation.
Relationships: Bridge Carson/Sky Tate
Series: Power Rangers: Zed Squad [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015558
Kudos: 3





	Return to Us Alive

**Author's Note:**

> zed squad supremacy

Bridge couldn’t sleep, his mind preoccupied with a hundred different things and refusing to shut up for any amount of time. He’d laid in bed for hours, hoping that sleep would come for him, but all he could do was toss and turn, side to side. Eventually, he gave up, pulled himself from bed, and went to sit on the couch.

He couldn’t stop worrying about the cadets. The Special Investigations Unit were not people to be messed with; they meant business regardless of what you thought of their intentions or methods.

They were just kids. Yeah, they were smart, powerful kids, the likes of which the Academy had never seen, but they were still kids, cadets fresh out of basic training, now being thrown into the deep end with weighted feet. It wasn’t fair. It didn’t help that handler was not who he expected.

The man that had met them in the conference room was tall, uninviting and was the definition of ‘for the greater good,’ and Bridge didn’t like that. He also didn’t like that he couldn’t read his aura, that something was blocking him - because he refused to believe that the man just didn’t have one. This man, whose name they still did not know, was nothing but trouble.

Bridge had been expecting Jack.

It had been a complicated story the first time Bridge had heard it, about Jack’s initial recruitment to Special Investigations, about his retirement and memory wipe and cover identity, about how he came to then be a Ranger. Bridge could follow the story, but he still wasn’t sure he understood it. It did offer him some relief though, knowing someone like Jack was in Special Investigations - he rejoined after his Ranger Retirement - knowing that there was at least one good person over there.

He’d been briefed, if it could be called that. Jack had come to him to explain that he’d be taking in the new cadets - Daniel, Sen and Stone - to Special Investigations as it’d be the only place they could really be safe and looked after. Bridge wasn’t completely on board; these cadets were some of the best he’d ever seen, and they would make brilliant Rangers one day, and he knew they wanted that, and now with their genetic powers, they could be unstoppable, but he understood what Jack was saying, understood why. He wished there was a better way, but at least with Jack as their handler, they’d be in safe hands.

But Jack hadn’t shown up, and he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t talk to Sky about it because he didn’t know. Sky didn’t know Jack was still in SPD, he didn’t know he was in Special Investigations, he didn’t know he was the handler they were supposed to be meeting, so Bridge had kept his mouth shut.

He’d managed to catch Z later that evening. She was the only other person who knew, having left Special Investigations with Jack all that time ago, together joining the Rangers - she’d just decided to stay - but she didn’t know anything, she wasn’t involved in that stuff anymore.

So these cadets were left in the hands of a man he did not know, nor did he trust, and being sent to a prison planet to get information about something from someone, all with no specialist training, leaving in the morning. He knew nothing more. It wasn’t good.

Bridge startled when a voice sounded from behind him. “I was expecting you in bed,” Sky said as he rounded to sit on the coffee table in front of him.

He calmed and sighed, “I can’t sleep.”

“The cadets?” He nodded. “You know it’s all that can be done right now. They can’t continue on with normal training now we know they have powers. It’s dangerous for them and it’s dangerous for SPD.”

Sky was starting to sound like Special Investigations, as he didn’t like it, even if a solid point was being made. They could be dangerous yes, but they just needed help and guidance, and who better than others with powers like that. They didn’t need Special Investigations meddling, but like Sky had said, there was nothing that could be done.

“That man,” he said, “I don’t trust him. He’s not the right one. I can’t read him, and I don’t why, but I don’t like it. He shouldn’t be their handler, he’s not the right one.”

“Then who should be?” It was said in a light, jokey way, Sky clearly hoping it to ease anxieties, but when it didn’t work, he dropped his tone, and gently took Bridge’s hand in his. “I don’t trust him either.

“Then how can we just let him take them away? He doesn’t want them to come back, can’t you see that? He doesn’t care if they survive as long as he gets what he wants.”

“I know,” and Sky dragged a hand down his face, still wrestling with sleep. “But there’s nothing we can do. When it comes to Special Investigations, well, there’s only so much say I have, which is to say none if they don’t want me to.”

It was a frustrating conversation to have because there was nowhere it could lead that wasn’t right back to where it started. He was sure Sky knew that too.

“Come to bed,” Sky said, tugging on his hand, but he didn’t move, staying rooted on the couch.

He shook his head. “Not yet, okay? Soon. You go on, I’ll join you in a bit, I’d just keep you up.”

“Bridge-”

“Please? Just, I need to think.”

It was silent as Sky looked down at him with sad eyes, but he eventually nodded, lent down to plant a kiss in his hair, and trot back to the bedroom. Bridge appreciated the concern, but it wasn’t what he needed; what he needed was a solution, or at least as close as he could get to one.

He continued to sit and think for some indeterminable amount of time before he had an idea. A slightly illegal idea, but the best one he had, and the best one that would ensure the cadets’ return. He quietly retrieved clothes - Sky back asleep - and dressed, before venturing out of their quarters.

He wasn’t in the science lab long, the modifications taking less time than expected, but he still triple checked them, every little detail and alteration, before getting back up and wandering down to the cadet residential wing.

It had been a long time since he’d been in this part of the SPD building, not in a decade at least, but he found the layout came back to him surprisingly quickly, and he found their room two thirds the way along the hallway. At this time, they’d be asleep, and he hesitated at the door. What he was doing, it was serious, but he knew it was what had to be done; better to ask forgiveness than permission. He rang the door and waited.

A few moments later, it opened. The room was dark, the hallway lights illuminating the tired face that met him; Cadet Daniel stood, his hand still on the door’s control panel, squinting, hair messy and sticking up in all directions. Peering in, he saw Cadet Stone still in his bed, but propped and awake, and Cadet Sen with her back against the headboard.

“Officer Carson?” Daniel said, throat dry. “Sir, what are you doing here? Is everything alright?”

He shuffled himself inside of the room without invitation; this wasn’t a conversation to have in a hallway. The cadets started adjusting themselves, standing straighter, getting out of bed, fixing hair, but Bridge didn’t care. He waited for them as they gathered around, anticipating answers to his unexpected drop-in.

“I have something for you,” he said finally, and dug into his pocket. From it, he produced three morphers. The cadets’ sleepy eyes all grew wide at the sight, flicking between him and the three, small devices he held.

“Sir?” Daniel spoke again.

“For you.” He pushed a morpher each into them, knowing which one was for which cadet; he pushed the morphers to their chests, Sen however managing to catch his hand before it even came close to making contact with her, and he gave her the morpher without a word; her reflexes were as sharp as he expected.

“I don’t trust him,” Bridge said, not explaining because it was clear; he knew they didn’t trust him either, he could see it, sense it in their auras. “Take these, use them only if you need them, they’ll protect you. I know you know how these work, I’ve seen the video footage and your training, you can handle it. And I’ve seen your skills first hand, so I know you're capable, but this is beyond anything you’ve dealt with - anything I’ve dealt with - so you might them, just , be careful.”

The cadets all nodded, still processing, turning the morphers over in their hands.

“I expect you all back in the condition you left.” Bridge straightened himself out, took a deep breath, and drew on his command voice. “Is that clear cadets?”

They all replied, “Yes sir,” as they saluted. With a nod, accepting their word as a promise, he left, hoping that the stolen technology, if needed, would be enough to ensure their safe return home.

As he climbed back into bed, Sky shifted, pushing into his side, still fast asleep. Bridge smiled as he settled. He still wasn’t exactly tired, but he could feel the emotional drain of the past twenty four hours catch up with him, and rather quickly, he was asleep.


End file.
